All-Ireland Series Sam Maguire 2026

[The Boy Wonder]

Lot of posters suggesting Armagh are doping. Noone called out the dubs during 6 in a row..

Who is this Noone fella ?  Any relation to A.N. Other ?

[Armagh4sam2024]

Lot of posters suggesting Armagh are doping. Noone called out the dubs during 6 in a row..

Who is this Noone fella ?  Any relation to A.N. Other ?

[Armagh18]

Lot of posters suggesting Armagh are doping. Noone called out the dubs during 6 in a row..

Who is this Noone fella ?  Any relation to A.N. Other ?

I can confirm I saw several Armagh players consume at least 10 vodka redbulls!

[2ndstringsub]

David Gough to referee Ros v Tyrone.

As someone who never misses Tyrone Senior games that has put me off something serious.

Curious how you as a Roscommon man feel about him? Am I tainted from previous encounters with my own county or is it just how he officiates in general?

[p3427977]

When can we expect the remaining fixtures confirmed? We'd the first four confirmed before the Munster and Connacht final.

[Armagh18]

David Gough to referee Ros v Tyrone.

As someone who never misses Tyrone Senior games that has put me off something serious.

Curious how you as a Roscommon man feel about him? Am I tainted from previous encounters with my own county or is it just how he officiates in general?

He's a complete tool.

[JoG2]

Have we got to the bottom of wondering why there is a national shortage of referees yet ? 🤔 A real puzzler

[Rossfan]

If only the GAA would appoint the Refs on the  ditches

Hopefully Mr Gough will protect our innocent young players from any dark arts.

[Armamike]

Have we got to the bottom of wondering why there is a national shortage of referees yet ? 🤔 A real puzzler

Just watch any club game and the abuse they take from managers, players, supporters.  Any club games i've watched lately, it's just constant, shouting, questioning every single call that goes against them. I wouldn't even want to ref a go games match.  Do it from time to time and the amount of mouthing from the other team's coaches is enough to put me off.  People just can't keep their mouth shut.  I admire anyone with a thick enough skin to want to do it!

[ranch]

GAA is rare in that it runs off its main competition in so few games. Of the 16 Sam Maguire teams they'll average about 4-5 outings each, with the finalists getting 7-9 . Compare that with Soccer leagues (30-40), NFL (17 minimum), NBA (82 min) etc.

People will mention the national league, but until something radical changes either in structure or GAA psyche, the league will remain little more than a warm-up competition.

Personally id love if the championship season was much bigger and longer. I'll concede though that attendances were relatively poor for those group stage games, so perhaps that isn't the popular public view. What they've come up with is a decent compromise imo

I'll never understand anyone wanting a return to straight knockout, or anything close to it.
1) You're asking your counties players to train for 9 months, for what may be one solitary outing.
2) How can you dislike top level football enough to potentially watch your team play 1 game of football all summer, all in the name of "jeopardy"?

Fcuk jeopardy. The more football the better

Easy. First, it enhances the excitement factor of games. Second, county teams also train for the League (the fact that a culture of irrelevance has been applied to it is not a reason to ignore it). Third, it provides for a more open competition where a "giant killing" can lead to greater rewards as opposed to further rounds before you meet a Kerry who beat you.

There remains plenty of football if the fan is interested and having one extra game (for some counties) isn't going to make a blind bit of difference.

I'd like something like this but I know it'll never happen.
Rd 1: 8 div 4 teams v 8 div 3 teams
Rd 2: 8 rd 1 winners v 8 div 2 teams (16 losers from opening 2 rounds enter the Tailteann Cup.)
Rd 3: 8 rd 2 winners v 8 Div 1 teams

From there you go into the AI quarter finals and run off the competition. Provincial championships can still be played pre the AI seriesand will still matter more in some provinces than others.
I personally would give the higher ranked teams home advantage in the opening 3 rounds as that's their reward for doing well in the league, however I wouldn't be against an alternative that gives the lower ranked team home advantage or else a toss of a coin.

[Blowitupref]

Be interesting to see how this latest new format goes.

For the games next weekend Kildare,Tyrone,Donegal and Meath all had the advantage of laying in the long grass and able to prepare for their opponents Cork,Kerry,Roscommon,Galway were focused on their provincial finals.


Galway should still beat Kildare.  Donegal v Kerry, Roscommon v Tyrone and Cork v Meath could go either way.

[Rossfan]

It's untried at County level.
Crowd predictions-
Kerry v Donegal 14/15k at most.
Can't see other than NFL regulars making the hike from Donegal.
Ros v Tyrone. 12k at most. Tyrone haven't the big army of old while a lot of our once a year crew can't figure anything out beyond a Connacht Final.
Galway v Kildare probably won't break 6k.
Cork v Meath, about the same. Now that doubts persist about Meath being a shoe in for Sam, while Cork CB have shunted the footballers out of the way to Páirc Uí Rinn.

[Captain Obvious]

Fixtures for the last weekend of this month.

Saturday 30 May
5pm: Westmeath v Cavan GAA+
7.15pm: Armagh v Derry GAA+

Sunday 31 May
2.30pm: Dublin v Louth GAA+
4pm: Monaghan v Mayo  RTÉ

[Wildweasel74]

Times for TV, no consideration of supporters!!

[armaghniac]

Times for TV, no consideration of supporters!!

Supporters want different things and only Mayo people have a really long journey in that list.